I was a typical teenager. Just turning 15 and intrested in the "world wide web" I had heard the news....Myspace killers....facebook rapists....I had heard my mother say a million times "don't you ever get one of those internet...things" It was scary to get those creepy emails that threatend to bring you bad luck, let alone think someone could learn enought\ about you to start stalking you. But somthing just didnt process in me. Myspace seemed to be calling my name, with its million choices of backrounds, a custimized world just waiting for me to create. It was something that was just for me. Something only I posessed. Something only I had the password too, something only i could connect through.
As i grew from a silly sophomore, Myspace started getting to be a hastle, life got busy, i didnt have time to go home everynight, wait for my mom to leave the kictchen so i could check my messages. I didnt have time to get on it and erase all the "history" on my computer to cover my tracks. I fell off the Myspace world...not because i was scared for my safety, i was scared about what had begun to happen to me.
finding the computer to be a somewhat boring place to resign myself in the evenings by the end of my Junior year, Facebook had found me. Having tons of friends who were going to college the next year, it seemed inevitable to NOT have one. Again the applications became alluring, the pictures comstanly being uploaded just HAD to be looked at, and my wall never went unchecked.
The reason i am writing about this is simply this: I knew about the dangers of myspace and facebook preditors....but that wasnt the true danger of those websites.
I TRULY believe i became addicted to these web sites.
I found myself logging on afterschool, before school, AT school. i found myself talking about these websites. "well i saw on facebook..." "on myspace she said this...." "i saw they were hanging out..." myspace and facebook are vortexes that suck you down into them and wont let you go. Its hard because you will get an email saying "you have a message on Facebook" and then you felt compelled to check it. I found myself looking at peoples pages daily, athough never writing a comment, just to see what they were doing. It became an illness. I got mad when someone talked to someone, it drove me nuts when they werent my friend so i couldnt see what they had written back. And it only became a problem when tons of girls began talking to my boyfriend and leaving comments on his page.
its funny. Maybe. but i think more people have this problem then just me. Think of how many people have a myspace or a facebook or even one of the less known websites. Think of how often they check it. How easily it becomes to become ubsessive over it. They tell you to beware of preditors. But what if you are your own preditor. Becoming addicted to something that should have little importance to you.
maybe im crazy.
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I think I am obsessed with this site. My parents are starting to worry. Is that bad? I don't know...
lol i just joined this today! i dont think it is as bad because when you are on this you are learning and actually using brain cells to process information. On this site you are agruing and using constructive critisisms with people of similar age range to yourself who are expressing their opinions. i dont think it is bad. especailly if your in it for a scholarship!
I know so many people like that. I have a myspace and facebook, but I have been able to not get sucked in like a lot of people. I read my messages, talk to the people I care about and log off, but I can definately see how people could get obseeive with them. Don't get me wrong, on sick days home from school, or in times of great boredom, I have been known to spend too long on one of those websites. it is just important to remember to communicate with those we love and care about in real life too and not to rely on things like that. Other people's lives may be interesting, but it's not neccesarry to know every detail abou people who, if we really think about it, we probably do not even care that much about. This is a really good blog though, because what you're talking about really is more dangerous because it affects people's grades and can become compulsive.
My kids grew three inches while I was checking my myspace and adding photos, and responding here at ProU. When I was first in college I stayed up all night chating on AOL which was the new thing way back then.
ANyway excellent post. I am just lucky that these are the only addictions I continue to feed.
Oh yeah my kids will have to use a typewritter till they are seniors (I already have it stored with extra tape and white out since it might be obsolete by then)
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
you are far from crazy.
i was like that. MYSPACE THIS AND MYSAPCE THAT! i got a faceook and it wasn't that big of deal. Then when i hit college it was never myspace and always FACEBOOK FACEBOOK FACEBOOK. now I found out about this website and i am obsessed with this one. i check my blog before i check anything else. mostly i wont even check until much later because i get so infratuated with this websitee :]]
trust me you arent crazy. there are the girls who have sidekicks and are on mysapce 24 7. like omg i have a new comment!
You're definitely not the only one who swears they're addicted to Facebook or Myspace. I'm not going to lie...they both distract me from doing things like studying or writing papers. I had to make some changes to keep them from distracting me too much. My email has a notification system that gives me a little popup on the lower right corner of my screen when I have a new message telling me who the sender is. It would pop up and tell me I had an email from Myspace and Facebook and I would immediately check my email and then progress to the appropriate site. I finally went in and changed the settings on my accounts so that I only get notified for friend requests. I also set my Myspace so that people that add me as a friend have to know my email or my last name to add me...it's amazing how many less requests I had once I kept strangers and bands from adding me. I'm usually pretty good about only checking it once (maybe twice) a day, at least until I have an exam to study for or a paper to write and I get bored with it...
Now I have another reason not to have one. In high school, I constantly had friends telling me that I just HAD to get a myspace page, and even online friends begged for it. My excuse has always been, "I'm on too many sites as it is (7-10 at any given time). One more would just be too much."
I have never had a myspace, but when I came to college I got a facebook and it just seems to get in the way of doing things, and I have to check it because my youth group post updates on it. I came to a point when I just wasn't getting things done, but I am a more casual user now.